T-Mobile doesn't want to spend billions just to get the iPhone like some competitors did

With the massive popularity of Apple's iPhone, you would think every carrier in the United States would want the device on their network. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint offer the iPhone, as do several smaller regional carriers. However, T-Mobile isn’t officially on the iPhone bandwagon yet.

A T-Mobile executive as recently stated that the carrier knows it has lost customers by not carrying the iPhone, but it's not willing to make major sacrifices just to get the device on its network.

Jim Alling, COO of T-Mobile USA, said, "Make no mistake about it: We would love to carry the iPhone. However, we want the economies to be right for us."

Alling also noted that T-Mobile didn't want to sign a deal similar to its competitors. Fierce Broadband and Wireless reports that Alling is making a veiled reference to a deal Sprint made to carry the iPhone in 2011 that cost $15.5 billion. Sprint doesn't expect its iPhone operations to become profitable until 2015.

Apple iPhone 5

Alling did note that T-Mobile's SIM-only Value Plans have attracted numerous iPhone owners from other networks. He said that there are 1.5 million unlocked iPhones operating on the T-Mobile network right now.

The comments were made during a discussion at the 12th annual Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecoms Conference in Spain. Some comments were also made about T-Mobile and its upcoming merger with MetroPCS. That merger is expected to take place early next year and it seems both T-Mobile and MetroPCS feel the same way about offering the iPhone.

Metro PCS COO Tom Keys said last summer, "It would be harmful to MetroPCS to have to cut out part of our handset portfolio to accommodate one phone from one provider that the economics could be at risk."

It isn't about supporting T-Mobile being absorbed by another company, when did name99 ever say that? He's talking about something entirely different, not saying that T-Mobile should be acquired by AT&T. Numbers don't lie, T-Mobile has lost almost two million customers this year because they do not carry the iPhone, revenue has been plummeting, and statements are being made to save face. That's all.

Not saying it is wrong, but where do you get the info that they lost 2m subscribers due to not having the Iphone? I understand that they lost 2m, but maybe there are plenty of other factors.

US Cellular is more of a regional carrier, but they are gaining customers, and doing pretty well while having nothing to do with the iphone. This is just one example.

Beleive it or not the iphone is not the only device out there anymore (contrary to you) and the world (outside your head) does not revolve around Apple. A bunch of their subscribers actually left due to the merger, as people were afraid to sign new contracts not knowing what would happen, and with knowing that the company is not doing good could make plenty uneasy signing a contract.

They don't. However, numbers can be interpreted to explain literally anything their hosts want to say.

A loss of two million customers versus making a deal with the devil that makes you lose money on every new iPhone customer... hrmph, tough choice indeed.

Apple didn't dangle a carrot in front of the carriers. It's full of industrial poison. Sprint bit it and now it's in the red. Oh but TMo should follow Sprint because OMG iPhone! So sayeth name99. Er no, I don't buy that argument at the slightest bit.

There is always an initial loss on hardware that is made up over the course of a contract. This is why two year contracts exist in the first place, its the same as when a company decides to buy a Samsung Galaxy S3 or whatever similarly high-end smartphone they decide to get. Hell, back in 2006 a Blackberry or even certain Nokia dumbphones cost about as much without a contract.

This initial hit on taking on new contracts is nothing new.

Verizon has done very well since taking on the iPhone, and it will pay off for Sprint in another year or two. If it wasn't a profitable business, which it clearly is, then they wouldn't accept those terms in the first place. T-Mobile is in a different boat, they're the only major carrier without the iPhone and the bleeding of customers is the result of that.